They Will Make a Night of It for 50th Nationals

Night drag racing, once a weekly staple for speed-crazed Southern California hot-rod enthusiasts, returns this week after an absence of nearly 20 years.

As a milestone celebration, the National Hot Rod Assn. will hold the Pep Boys 50th Anniversary Nationals at night on the legendary Pomona Raceway.

It will be the first time a third national event will be held on the same strip in the same year. Pomona annually hosts the Winternationals in February and the NHRA Finals in November.

Qualifying today and Friday night will establish 16-car fields for final eliminations Saturday night. It will be the first after-dark show at Pomona, where day racing has been conducted since 1961, except for the occasional times when final rounds of the Winternationals ran past a 7 p.m. curfew.

For old-time race fans, who remember weekly shows at strips such as Lions, Orange County, Irwindale, Fontana and San Fernando, it will be a nostalgic trip into the past, when the night was illuminated by flames snorting from header pipes as the nitro-burning top fuel and funny cars sped through the darkness.

And for younger fans who missed that era, it will offer an opportunity to understand what old-timers are talking about when they refer to drag racing’s “Good Old Days.”

Most of today’s drivers, who either cut their racing teeth at night drags or remember tagging along with their parents in the 1960s and ‘70s, are as enthusiastic about the event as the spectators who have kept the NHRA lines busy ordering tickets.

“When we raced in the evening, it was always a real crowd pleaser,” said Kenny Bernstein, 56, who won his first NHRA national event in 1979 and this year is the top fuel points leader in quest of a sixth nitro championship. “The header flames dance in the night and it’s really a unique kind of fireworks display.”

John Force, 10-time funny car champion from Yorba Linda who is on his way to No. 11, calls night racing “a light show within a drag race.”

“All we need are the Beach Boys and the Four Tops blasting on the radio in the staging lanes and it will be deja vu all over again,” said Mike Dunn, winner of three of the last seven NHRA events at Pomona. Dunn’s father, Jim, was a fan favorite for years at local strips.

Said Ron Capps, one of Hall of Fame car owner Don “Snake” Prudhomme’s drivers: “As a kid, my family would drive down to L.A. to places like Irwindale, Orange County and Lions drag strip and watch night racing. For me this race is going to bring back a lot of history and memories from my childhood.

“I used to have posters all over my wall of funny cars and dragsters racing at night.”

To enhance the nostalgic feeling surrounding the 50th Anniversary Nationals, the NHRA is bringing back front-engine top fuel dragsters and other exotic classes from the past.

Before 1971, when Don Garlits developed the rear-engine dragster after an explosion damaged his feet, top fuelers had the engine in front, right in the driver’s lap. Although all of today’s top drivers are in rear-engine machines, there is a group of hard-liners who still love to drive front-engine dragsters--once known as AA/fuel dragsters.

“It’s more seat-of-the-pants driving,” says Jack Harris, 58, driver of the Nitro Thunder nostalgia dragster. “It takes more experience, because with that engine sitting in front of you, you need to know when to lift and when to stay in the throttle. If you don’t know when to lift you could get a face full of oil.”

Rance McDaniel, top fuel winner in the 1993 NHRA Finals at Pomona in a rear-engine car, says the front engines are harder to drive.

“These cars don’t always go straight,” he said. “The first lesson I learned when I switched over from the longer cars is that these require some additional driving. They move around pretty aggressively, almost similar to a funny car. You’ve got to know how to steer it and finesse the clutch to get the most out of a run.”

Speeds are quite different.

Tony Schumacher holds the Pomona track record of 327.03 mph for today’s brand of dragsters. Harris, winner of the Bakersfield March Meet and Hod Rod Reunion, has a career-best 244 mph for the older models.

“We’d love to get the speed record up to 250 mph at Pomona,” said Harris, who won the Good Guys nostalgia event there last year.

Techno Tim Gibson, team aerodynamicist for Force’s Mustangs, is planning to drive a front-engine car, the Mastercam Special, in the nostalgia class, and a rear-engine car for Bill Miller Engineering in top fuel.

Nitro qualifying is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. and 6 p.m. today with nostalgia time trials at 5:30. There will be an 8 p.m. curfew today.

Friday qualifying for top fuel and funny cars will be at 4:15 and 8 p.m. with a 10 p.m curfew. Nostalgia cars run at 4:15 and 7:30.

Final eliminations start at 4 p.m. Saturday.

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Drag Racing Facts

* What: Pep Boys NHRA 50th Anniversary Nationals, No. 13 of 24-race, $50-million Winston Drag Racing series.

* Where: Pomona Raceway.

* When: Today, qualifying, 2-8 p.m.; Friday, qualifying, 3:30-10 p.m.; Saturday, final eliminations, 4 p.m.

* Purse: $2 million.

* Points leaders: Kenny Bernstein, top fuel; John Force, funny car; Warren Johnson, pro stock; Angelle Savoie, pro stock motorcycle.

* Added attraction: Nostalgia front-engine top fuel dragsters.